As real estate becomes more and more in demand, Texans are motivated to get their license. Despite the rush there is still plenty of room for many. “The number of active real estate licensees provides a measure of the relative size of the real estate brokerage industry through the years and across state boundaries,” said Charles Gilliland, research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “Among the largest states, Texas lags California, Florida and New York in total active licensees.”

The number of active Texas real estate licensees peaked at nearly 154,600 in 1986. Then came the real estate bust, and by 1997, the total had dropped to fewer than 81,200. Texas has 100,000 active real estate licensees. California has four times that number of active licensees. Florida has twice as many, and New York has 50 percent more.

Since 1997, the number of Texas real estate licensees has been growing. Today, there are an estimated 140,000 Texas licensees. But while the number of agents has been growing modestly, the number of Texans in need of real estate services has exploded.

Theoretically, said Gilliland, the number of licensees should increase and decrease as the population grows and economic activity expands and contracts. More people buying homes mean more business for more agents.

In 1986, Florida led the nation with 19.5 real estate agents for every 1,000 residents. By 2000, the Sunshine State was down to 9.4 agents per 1,000 — substantially fewer than the peak but still twice as many per 1,000 citizens as Texas.

The agent-to-resident ratio in California, Florida and New York has been going up since 2001. The California ratio is up 30 percent, Florida 20 percent and New York 26 percent. The Texas ratio is up 5 percent since 2000.

One explanation for the differences in state-to-state real estate agent populations may relate to the feverish investment activity in residential real estate in California, Florida and New York.